Nichole Kidman is an ambitious if slightly naive young journalist who dreams of being a famous newscaster. But when no one takes her seriously and her career seems like it’s going nowhere, she reveals the extent to which she’s capable of imposing her will on the world. If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen the poster for this movie before and just assumed it’s something in the vein of Basic Instinct, in which case you’ll be surprised to find out that it’s actually a dark satire filmed and edited partially as a documentary. There’s nothing obviously bad about this film, but none of the characters are particularly complex and the condescending way in which Gus Van Zant treats his characters is sometimes a little grating.

Nicole Kidman is an interpreter at the UN who overhears a plot to kill a visiting dignitary and Sean Penn is the CIA agent who is there to stop it from happening. As mystery/thrillers go, this movie does so many things right! There are plenty of tense scenes, a great Hitchcock-like setup where Sean Penn is watching over Nicole Kidman from a different building through binoculars, and a mostly solid commitment to showing things exclusively from Kidman and Penn’s perspective. Unfortunately, there are just some weird choices made, like randomly showing you the killer half-way through the movie right when you are wondering who it could possible be… and then this whole silly sequence at the end where way too many loose ends are tied up in about 30 seconds. Still, if you like thrillers, this is a solid worth checking out.